Kelsie woke with the sunrise the next morning. The moment her eyes opened she was assailed with a sense of guilt and concern. She looked for Victoria in the hopes that Lady Varys had returned in the night, but did not find her. All she succeeded in doing was tripping over Leo, who was asleep on the floor rather than in the bed as seemed to be his habit. She had not once seen him lie down anywhere else.
“What are you doing?” He came awake with a growl of complaint.
“Where is Lady Varys?” Kelsie asked him a question in return. “She's not here.”
“I don't know,” Leo said, rubbing his eyes. “You say she hasn't returned?”
“No,” Kelsie shook her head. “The bed hasn't been slept in. She must not have come back last night.”
“Perhaps not,” Leo said, sitting up in his shirt. It was partway open, revealing masculine dark curls across his broad chest. Kelsie averted her gaze, uncomfortable with the feelings that began to rise in her whenever she looked at him too long or too intensely.
He had comforted her the night before, assured her that Victoria's anger would pass and that she was not in any serious trouble. Kelsie was not sure she believed him. Lady Varys had been angry, but Kelsie had detected something else in her gaze. Something more like... disappointment, or perhaps hurt.
It was true that she had disobeyed Victoria's orders. It was also true that she had agreed to obey Victoria. So really, was Victoria in the wrong?
“What if something has happened to her? What if she's hurt?”
***
Kelsie was fretting, much to Leo's irritation, but not surprise. The girl was not used to having anyone to rely on and was now concerned that she had been abandoned. Victoria should have known that and returned to show her apprentice that all was not lost.
“She has no doubt gone to make some preparations for the matter with the satyr,” he said as Kelsie’s concerned gaze continued to darken.
It was quite likely that Victoria had simply stormed off in a huff. Sorceresses could be temperamental wenches at the best of times, but Leo was resolved not to worry. And not to let Kelsie worry either.
“Eat some breakfast. We should be rid of the satyr problem today and ready to return to Englred.”
“But Lady Varys...”
“Lady Varys is making a point, as is her habit. Do not worry about it.”
“Will I…” Kelsie began the question, but trailed off.
“What?”
“Will I see you in Englred?”
Leo smiled. “I am quite often in the city.”
“But not all the time.”
“No. Not all the time.” He knew what she was asking. She was asking if he would always be there. He would liked to have said yes, but that was a promise too far. He and Victoria had never managed to share a bed for more than a few nights, let alone residence in the same city for any extended period of time.
She nodded quietly. “I hope Lady Varys comes back,” she said. “Or else I will have to return to Kinleigh.”
“I am sure Victoria has not abandoned you,” he reassured her. “Once she makes a vow, she keeps it. And she has vowed to help you become a sorceress, so I believe she will.”
Kelsie's lower lip began to tremble. “I don't deserve her help. I couldn't do what she said for even a few hours...”
“Don't punish yourself,” Leo said. “Victoria will do that.”
When an hour had passed and there was no sign of Victoria, Leo took Kelsie and went to look for her. He questioned a few peasants, who said they'd seen a lady matching Lady Varys' description riding toward the caves.
“She's gone to face the goat prince on her own,” Leo swore.
“We don't know that. She might have just... left,” Kelsie said. She had been following him like an anxious little shadow the entire time, making occasional little moans of mourning.
“She has not left, Kelsie. I will go and find Victoria. You go back to the room and stay out of trouble. I need to see the bladesmith before I go.”
***
With that, Kelsie was left to her own devices. She did not wait inside the claustrophobic little room as directed. It reminded her of Victoria and that made her miserable. Instead she sat outside the tavern, sunning her face as the world passed her by. Samilton was a busy little town and there were many people coming to and fro, providing a myriad of sights to watch as they went about their business.
“Greetings!” A voice she did not know but that seemed to be directed at her broke into her reverie.
She opened her eyes and saw that there was a young soldier about her age smiling at her. He was a strapping man, tall and broad with a full head of dark hair and laughing eyes to match.
Kelsie was not used to being smiled at by handsome men. She pushed her dark locks out of her eyes and tried a smile of her own.
His grew broader.
“Hello pretty lady,” he said, coming to stand closer to her. “What's your price?”
“My price?”
“For a rut in the hayloft.”
“Uhm...”
“You want to be fucked, right?” He grabbed his crotch and made a lewd thrusting motion toward her.
“No, thank you,” she said politely.
“Come on, girl. I saw your smile. Practically begged me to whisk your skirts up.”
“I’m not wearing a skirt.”
“So you’re not, but breeches come down over a fine ass just as easy,” he smirked.
She no longer found him handsome. Actually, he was quite vile. There was an unpleasant, entitled sneer hanging about his lips. He would not dared to have spoken to her so if Victoria or Leo were there.
“No, thank you,” she repeated.
“Stop playing hard to get. You know your hot little cunt needs a rough rod.”
He reached a hand out as if to take hers and pull her up from her seat. Instead of being passively taken, Kelsie made a pushing gesture. It was a simple reflex with no thought behind it, but without so much as touching the soldier, such force was emitted from her palm that he was thrown from his feet and landed in a puddle in the middle of the road.
He rose immediately, his face ruddy with anger, his blade drawn.
“Bitch!”
Kelsie stood up, realizing she was going to have to run. She had not entirely expected that to happen. Anger had flowed through her, but now it deserted her in favor of fear. Fear not only of the angry soldier, but of her own actions. She had meant to push him away. Instead she’d revealed herself for what she was… and that was a dangerous thing to have done. Victoria could get away with calling down lightening strikes, but that was because Victoria was a noblewoman and the lightening bolt in the tavern could be explained away as some freak phenomenon. What Kelsie had just done to the soldier could not be. He had felt her power, and it had enraged him.
He pointed his sword at her and opened his mouth to decry her as a witch. She saw his lips form the W, but before he could make so much as a sound, a dark shadow passed over the ground between them. It was a man moving so quickly and silently that it was not until the soldier’s sword fell from his hand that he even knew he had been engaged.
Leo.
He came to a dead halt in front of the shocked soldier who was holding his hand and whimpering. It looked like it might be broken. It was already swelling an angry red color. If it was, Kelsie didn’t care.
“Get out of here, boy,” Leo snarled. “If I see you again, your head and your body will be pursuing different paths.”
The soldier did not reply save for another whimper as he rushed off out of town, making his way back to the military camp outside Samilton.
“Thank you,” she gasped as Leo turned to her. “ He was going to…”
“Oh I know what he had in mind,” Leo snorted. “I thought I told you to stay out of danger.”
“I didn’t know I was in danger! I was just sitting here. I didn’t do anything besides smile at him.”
“You can't smile at soldiers, Kelsie. They're wenching their way across the seven kingdoms. They will interpret even a stray glance as an invitation.”
“So I cannot smile at soldiers,” she said, frustrated. “I cannot meet any men. I am not allowed to speak to practically anyone...”
“We are in a rural backwater. When we return to Englred there will be more opportunities for you to socialize.”
“No there won't. Victoria will ensure I do nothing beside bury my nose in books and practice incantations...”
Leo folded his arms over his chest, a scowl forming on his brow. “You're pouting when you should be grateful for not having called a squadron down on your head. In regions such as these, witch burning can still happen.”
A stubborn scowl established itself on Kelsie's face. This, like everything else, wasn't fair. “How come Lady Varys can shoot a lightening bolt through the middle of the tavern and nobody bats an eye, but I push a soldier over and I'm a witch?”
Leo gave her one of those sympathetic, amused looks, as if she were a dull little animal who had just done something stupid and faintly adorable.
“Lady Victoria Varys bears the privilege of her rank. Her family rules in the kingdom of Varys and has done so for hundreds of years. They are the peacemakers and the gatekeepers, and their influence is not limited to her kingdom alone. There has been a sorceress of the house of Varys in every court as long as anyone can remember...”
“But the peasants don't know that,” Kelsie interrupted.
“They can see it in the way she holds herself, her speech, even the trim on her cloak. Victoria is protected from common ire in a way you are not yet protected.”
“Not yet,” Kelsie snorted. “You mean never will be.”
“I would not count on that,” Leo said. “She will impart her airs and graces to you in good time. I think the process has already started, though it is not enough to change the way folk recognize you as one of their own. Until you are a sorceress proper, you need to be careful. You could easily be mistaken for a common witch.”
She could easily be mistaken for one, because in essence, she was one. Lady Varys liked to pretend it was not the case, and Leo was too kind to say it, but Kelsie knew the truth of her condition.
“So I should put my cape over my head and keep my eyes down and make sure not to look at any male for longer than a second, in case he decides I'm trying to sell myself?”
“You should stay inside,” Leo said. “As I told you to do in the first place. Now we are going to have to move on before this town turns on us.”
“We can't move on! She won't know where to find us!”
“We will find her,” Leo said. “Don’t you worry about that. You just stay close, keep your head down, and….
“WITCH! There’s a WITCH in Samilton!” A cry went up nearby, followed by a sudden shift in the wind. The villagers who had been going to and fro largely uninterested in anything besides their own business suddenly became alert, their ears pricking like a field of hares.
“Come here. Now,” he insisted, grasping her by the hand. Kelsie had no choice but to follow him as he dragged her to their horses. Lady Varys' mount was gone, but his stallion and her donkey were still in the little stable outside the tavern.
She watched as he hastily saddled both, his agile fingers working the leather straps with a practiced touch that was smooth even at speed.
“We're running away? Why?”
“Because a witch burning is not something we want to be near, especially when you're the witch in question,” he said. “Mount up, Kelsie.”
“But our things are still in the room...”
“Doesn't matter. Mount up.”
“But Victoria...”
“MOUNT. UP!” He bellowed the order at her. His stallion flicked an ear and otherwise did not respond, but her donkey seemed to take the order personally. It reared back and struck out with its front hooves, just missing his head.
“Easy!” He reached out and grabbed the animal's bridle, only to have it try to bite him.
“They're here! Bring the fire!” A scream rang out behind them.
Kelsie looked over her shoulder and saw a pack of villagers approaching, their torches held high and burning bright. It had taken them just a few minutes to assemble a mob – an impressive feat. Though it was the middle of the day, the torches threw nasty shadows across the peasants and the ground beneath. The looks in their eyes were particularly frightening, a manic glaze of hatred from people who had not cared who she was an hour ago, and yet who were now gripped with the desire to destroy her.
As she stood rooted to the spot, a hand reached down, grasped her by the scruff of her doublet and hauled her up and over the saddle. Falkroy spurred his mount and the black stallion flew from the stables just as the mob arrived, bursting through flame and fury with Kelsie's donkey following up the rear, the ornery long eared beast striking out at those who sought to harm her.
***
Leo rode out of Samilton at full speed, heading into the countryside. His choice to flee was not on his account – or even Kelsie's. He strongly suspected that the apprentice sorceress was more than capable of defending herself when necessary. He had chosen to flee in order to protect the people of Samilton themselves. They were dense and simple, but they did not deserve to die.
He headed due east, drawn by the notion that there should be some cover in the woods in that direction. Riding with one hand on the reins, one keeping a firm grasp on the back of Kelsie's doublet to ensure she did not go flying off, he mentally cursed Victoria. They needed to stay together in these matters. Kelsie was trouble waiting to happen and she needed more than one pair of eyes on her at any given time.
Finally trees began to surround them and Leo slowed his stallion. The forest was dense enough to force the horse to have to pick its way through.
As she felt their pace slow, Kelsie tried to squirm up, but he kept her in place with a rough. “No.”
She made some complaint about being uncomfortable, but he paid that no mind. She had no idea how uncomfortable she was about to get if she didn't settle down and rediscover her obedient spirit.
He was looking for a place to make camp when a glimmer of water showed through the trees, and shortly after an old cottage came into view as well. As he approached he noticed that it was seemingly abandoned. A trapper's hut, perhaps, used in winter.
Drawing his mount to a halt, Leo let Kelsie slide from the horse and looked inside. It was all packed down and the dust covering the furniture and floor indicated that it had been some time since the owner was there. The walls were in good condition, as was the thatch, so it would do for temporary shelter away from the mad locals.
“You stay here,” he said. “I'm going to find Victoria. They may turn on her having been deprived of us as prey.”
“I'll come with you,” Kelsie said quickly.
“No, you will stay here, in this cottage. I will bar the door and you will not open it until I come back, understand?”
He saw a flash of temper in her eyes, a rare sight for Kelsie, and one that did not bode well for either of them.
“I'm coming with you,” she insisted. “She's my mistress.”
“I'm not making a request of you, Kelsie,” he growled. “I'm giving you an order.”
She drew herself up in a manner quite reminiscent of Victoria. It would have been quite adorable if not for the fact she was picking precisely the wrong time to test his patience.
“No,” she declared, practically copying Victoria's tone to perfection.
“No?”
Leo grabbed her and a second later his palm met her buttocks with a hard swat, enough to make her yowl.
“I've got one sorceress who doesn't mind me. I'll not have two!”
The slaps landed firmly across her britches, catching both cheeks with single swats. It was far from the worst whipping Leo had ever given a girl, but it made an incredible impact on Kelsie. Her squeal was so high pitched, it almost sounded like a suckling hauled off to be roasted.
He gave her a good two dozen right across the tender part of her bottom where she'd usually sit, intending for the message to stick for a while. It only took a minute or so to deliver the punishment and the second he let her go she bounced up, her face flaming, her eyes downcast as she threw herself down on the bed, hiding her face.
Leo sighed, putting his hand over his eyes.
He did not hit women. That was his credo. But sorceresses were not women in the typical sense of the word. They were far stronger, far more difficult to control, and Kelsie had been very close to getting herself killed once today already. He had every rationale in the world for having thrashed her rear, and frankly, it had been a merciful whipping. But he also knew that he had given the apprentice a taste of the thrashing her mistress truly deserved.
“Kelsie?”
She would not look at him and he was reminded of how she had been when he had first met her, a cringing, cowering girl who hid within her cape and could barely say a word to him. He hoped he had not set her back permanently by his actions.
“I'm not going to say I'm sorry for whipping your rear,” he said. “You have to mind me. It's the only way you'll stay safe.”
A little shrug met his words.
He sat down next to her on the bed and touched her shoulder gently. She rolled back toward him and looked at him with sparkling eyes. And then he smelled it. A familiar feminine scent. Was she... no. Surely not. Her eyes met his and he saw arousal there, plain as day. It was an innocent attraction, but no less powerful for that fact.
Leo cleared his throat. “You're alright, aren't you, Kelsie.”
“I'm sore,” she said with a little pout he was almost certain was calculated.
“That's what happens when you're punished,” he said as she angled her rear toward him with an uncharacteristically forward roll of her hips.
“You could rub it better?”
There was a test and a trap in that suggestion. As he looked down at her, he could not help but see that Kelsie had blossomed in just a few short days. She was not the same scared little scamp who had trailed him through Englred. She was a young woman in the first bloom of her desire. He knew how strong that could be. He could feel the pull of it, the knowledge that below those tight britches he himself had chosen for her, she would be welling with... He stopped the train of thought immediately. There was something in the air between them, something new and not quite natural. He found himself looking around the room, as if expecting to see something or someone.
“Please... Leo...” her voice was soft and breathless, her hand on his thigh.
He stood up swiftly and put a pace of distance between them. “What are you doing, girl?”
A beautiful maidenly blush appeared on her cheeks, but she was not so embarrassed as to fall completely silent.
“I'm just so.... ready...” she sighed.
Ready. She was beyond ready. She was like a queen cat in heat, hips rolling, chest out, eyes downcast but gleaming with need.
“Spank me again, Leo,” she moaned, rising to her knees and crawling toward him across the bed. “I've been naughty.”
“I'm not going to spank you again.”
“But you have to,” she said, looking at him with those doe like brown eyes. “Or else I'll disobey you.”
A low growl escaped his throat. This kind of seduction was out of character, so much so he half wondered if she had been charmed.
“Settle yourself, Kelsie,” he ordered. “Or it won't be a spanking you get, but a whipping. I'll pull this belt off and stripe your hide. It won't feel good like that rump warming obviously did. It will hurt – I'll make sure of it.”
She stopped and sat back on her knees, pouting with her creamy breasts threatening to spill out of the top of her doublet, which had lost a couple of buttons in her writhing display. “It's because I'm ugly, isn't it.”
“It's because I have command of you, and I have no intention of taking advantage of that.”
“But I don't want to be a virgin anymore. Please... you could...”
“Kelsie!” He snapped her name sharply. “Another word and I will have you with your nose in the corner, hands tied behind your back. You'll stay here bound until I get back. Is that what you want?”
“Nossir,” she said, shaking her head swiftly.
She was still obedient enough to obey him and to sit down a little more modestly. Leo took a deep breath, his blood like fire in his veins. Oh if he were to unleash himself upon her, she would be thoroughly ravaged, and that was not his intention.
“Stay here,” he repeated. “I must find Victoria before the villagers do. You must promise me you will not leave this cottage.”
“I promise,” she said, sulkily. He did not know how much her promise was worth. He supposed he was about to find out.